Spinzilla Survivor and Success

I’m a Spinzilla Survivor! Last week I spun and spun away on my drop spindle, turning most of a lovely braid of Corriedale fiber into yarn!

I began the week with a bucket full of fiber that looked like neon spaghetti. I didn’t realize how bright this fiber truly was until I took it outside to try and spin a bit while the kids played. That worked for a little while, until the wind picked up!

Over the week I became more comfortable with the spindle and I could really feel different muscles being used. I felt like I unlocked some sort of trick when I figured out how to keep fiber wrapped up my wrist and arm! I also felt like I was getting faster and when I was able to devote solid time to it could fill the spindle more quickly.

When the time came to prep more fiber, I made these little balls instead of the pile of spaghetti. That worked a little bit better and looked nicer too! I was not able to spin all of the fiber shown here. I got maybe 1/2 or 2/3 through it.

After I filled my spindle, I used empty toilet paper tubes to hold the yarn. I didn’t know if I would attempt plying. In the end I didn’t ply and I just kept spinning. Yesterday I took the yarn from the tp tubes, wrapped it around chair legs to measure my yardage. Then I gave the yarn a bath, thwacked it a bit, and skeined it up!

Today, I have yarn! 215 yards! That is a very modest amount (other Spinzilla members spun multiple MILES worth of yarn!), and I am very pleased with it. I do wish I had been able to get through the entire braid of fiber. I don’t know when I will get back to it – I have knitting and crochet to work on! Still 215 yards, that is plenty for a project of some kind. It’s thick-and-thin; I can’t seem to locate my ruler to check the wraps-per-inch. In my head I can picture a moth and I think that would be fun to turn my Spinzilla yarn into a “Mothra” project, though I haven’t been able to find the pattern I thought I saw. I’m also thinking this yarn would make a pretty cool stuffed monster (or several, if I did ones from the 50 yards of Fun book). I enjoyed this spinning experiment and my team, #Team Louet, was absolutely fabulous. Our team had lots of great chatter, helpful advice and lots of support.